System, method, and computer program product for rendering at variable sampling rates using projective geometric distortion

ABSTRACT

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for rendering at variable sampling rates. Vertex coordinates for 3D primitive are received from a shader execution unit, and an arithmetic operation is performed on the vertex coordinates by fixed operation circuitry to produce modified vertex coordinates in homogeneous coordinate space. The modified vertex coordinates are transformed from homogeneous coordinate space into screen-space to produce screen-space vertex coordinates of a transformed 3D primitive and the transformed 3D primitive is rasterized in screen-space using the screen-space vertex coordinates to produce an image for display.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to graphics processors, and moreparticularly to rendering at variable sampling rates.

BACKGROUND

When graphics primitives are rendered the pixels that are covered byeach primitive are determined during rasterization. Classicalthree-dimensional (3D) Z-buffered rendering assumes that a uniform orconstant sampling rate (i.e., sampling resolution) is desired across thedisplay screen. However, some applications may benefit from the abilityto sample non-uniformly. In particular, virtual reality (VR) requires avariable sampling resolution that is matched (inversely) to the opticsof the VR display screen. A 3D scene is rendered with a conservative anduniform sampling resolution to produce an image. The image is thenresampled to match the variable VR sampling resolution and produce theresampled image for display by the VR display. Rendering the entirescene at a uniform sampling rate and then resampling the image to matchthe desired sampling rate is wasteful. In particular, many more samplesare shaded than are required given the final display screen pixelresolution. Specifically, pixels further from the center of the view aresampled at a lower rate, so that a significant portion of the imagerendered at the uniform sampling rate is higher than what is needed toproduce the resampled image for display. There is thus a need foraddressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

SUMMARY

A system, method, and computer program product are provided forrendering at variable sampling rates. In one embodiment, vertexcoordinates for 3D primitive are received from a shader execution unit,and an arithmetic operation is performed on the vertex coordinates byfixed operation circuitry to produce modified vertex coordinates inhomogeneous coordinate space. The modified vertex coordinates aretransformed from homogeneous coordinate space into screen-space toproduce screen-space vertex coordinates of a transformed 3D primitiveand the transformed 3D primitive is rasterized in screen-space using thescreen-space vertex coordinates to produce an image for display.

In another embodiment, vertex coordinates for a 3D primitive inhomogeneous coordinate space are received and a first projectivegeometric distortion is performed on the vertex coordinates using afirst operation to produce modified vertex coordinates in homogeneouscoordinate space. A second projective geometric distortion is performedon the vertex coordinates using a second operation to produce secondmodified vertex coordinates in the homogeneous coordinate space. Themodified vertex coordinates are transformed and the second modifiedvertex coordinates into screen-space to produce screen-space vertexcoordinates of a transformed 3D primitive. The transformed 3D primitiveis rasterized in screen-space using the screen-space vertex coordinatesto produce an image for display.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a method for rendering at variable sample rates, inaccordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2A illustrates a display screen of a heads mounted display (HMD),in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2B illustrates a lens distortion function of the display screenshown in FIG. 2A, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2C illustrates the lens distortion function (ratio of samplingdistance vs sampling distance at the lens center) of FIG. 2B as a lensdistortion function of two dimensional display position rather than as afunction of radial distance from the lens center, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 2D illustrates sampling grid shown in FIG. 2A transformed via thelens distortion function shown in FIG. 2B, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 2E is the same as FIG. 2A, with the render target boundary fromFIG. 2D added to the illustration.

FIG. 3 illustrates a graphics processing pipeline, in accordance withone embodiment.

FIG. 4A illustrates a scene rendered without applying a projectivegeometric distortion, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 4B illustrates the scene rendered with a projective geometricdistortion applied, in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 4C illustrates the scene rendered with the display screen dividedinto four different regions using region-specific projective geometricdistortions, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 5A illustrates view of a display screen including four differentregions, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIGS. 5B, 5C, 5D, and 5E illustrate the pixel dimensions along theregion boundaries of FIG. 5A, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 6A illustrates pixel size in four regions with W coordinates withprojective geometric distortions applied, in accordance with anotherembodiment.

FIG. 6B illustrates pixel size in four regions with W coordinates with aprojective geometric distortion applied in each region, in accordancewith another embodiment.

FIG. 6C illustrates the graph shown in FIG. 6B superimposed with thegraph shown in FIG. 2B, in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 6D illustrates a top view of FIG. 6C.

FIG. 6E illustrates the five regions of the display screen, inaccordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 7A illustrates a block diagram configured to perform a projectivegeometric distortion to produce a variable sampling rate, in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 7B illustrates a method for modifying vertex coordinates to vary asampling rate, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIGS. 7C and 7D illustrate a portion of a graphics processing pipelineincluding a vertex coordinate modification unit, in accordance withrespective embodiments.

FIG. 7E illustrates a method for determining a variable sampling rate,in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 8 illustrates a parallel processing unit, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates the shader execution unit of FIG. 8, in accordancewith one embodiment.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary system in which the variousarchitecture and/or functionality of the various previous embodimentsmay be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Being able to render with a non-uniform sampling rate that is a closermatch to the requirements of VR display optics, may be roughly twice asefficient as rendering with a conservative and uniform sampling rate toproduce an image and then sampling the image to match the VR displayoptics. A transformation may be applied to the graphics primitives inhomogenous coordinate space, which will have the effect of causing thegraphics primitives to be non-uniformly sampled from the perspective ofthe original coordinates of the graphics primitives. As a result, anobject that is positioned in the periphery of the view can be sampledmore coarsely than an object that is positioned in the center of theview, for example. If the coordinates of vertices in the scene (inhomogeneous coordinate space, projective coordinate space, clip-space,or view-space) are modified, the perspective projection mechanism may beused to implement a varied sampling rate using a standard rasterizationpipeline. Compared with world space which is three-dimensions (x, y, z),homogeneous space includes a fourth dimension, w. The w dimension oftenrepresents a distance from a viewer to an object (or vertex defining aprimitive or an object). In one embodiment, the w dimension represents aweight value.

In one embodiment, the vertex coordinates are represented in projectivespace so that matrix operations (e.g., translation, scale, rotation,etc.) may be applied to perform geometric projections. In oneembodiment, each vertex may be represented as homogeneous coordinates(e.g., x, y, z, and w), where the w coordinate associated with eachprimitive vertex is modified to implement the varied sampling rate.Additionally, the sampling rate may be varied based on a distance fromthe center of the VR display.

FIG. 1 illustrates a method 100 for rendering at a variable samplingrate using projective geometric distortion, in accordance with oneembodiment. At step 110, vertex coordinates for a 3D primitive arereceived. In the context of the present description, a primitive refersto any element (e.g. a polygonal element, etc.) that is capable of beingutilized to image a polygon (e.g. such as a triangle, a rectangle,etc.), or that is capable of being used to image an object capable ofbeing represented by polygons.

In various embodiments, the 3D primitive may be received by a graphicsprocessor. In the context of the following description, the graphicsprocessor may include any number of graphics processor pipeline units,fixed operation circuits, and programmable shader execution units, aswell as associated hardware and software. For example, in oneembodiment, the graphics processor may include one or more shaderexecution units capable of executing shader programs, such as a vertexshader, a tessellation initialization shader, a tessellation shader, anda geometry shader. Moreover, in one embodiment, the vertex shader andthe geometry shader may each execute on a programmable shader executionunit. While a shader execution unit may be programmable it is not meantto be limiting to how the shader execution unit is implemented. In oneembodiment, the shader execution unit is a combination of programmablecircuitry and fixed operation circuitry. In one embodiment, the vertexcoordinates that are generated by a vertex shader program are receivedin homogeneous coordinate space. In one embodiment, at step 110, thevertex coordinates are received from a programmable shader executionunit configured to execute either a vertex shader program or a geometryshader program.

At step 120, an arithmetic operation is performed on the vertexcoordinates to produce modified vertex coordinates in homogeneouscoordinate space. In one embodiment, the arithmetic operation isperformed by fixed operation circuitry. The fixed operation circuitrymay be separate from the programmable shader execution unit. In oneembodiment, at step 120, the arithmetic operation is first function thatdefines a matrix operation and/or a projective geometric distortion. Inthe context of the following description, a projective geometricdistortion of a vertex coordinate “v” is a function in the formv′=Ax+By+Cz+Dw+E, where x, y, z and w are vertex coordinates, A, B, C, Dand E distortion factors that may be any real number, “v” is one of x,y, z or w, and the new value of the coordinate. Any reduced form of theequation above, for example at least one of A, B, C, D or E being equalto zero, is also understood to be a projective geometric distortion. Aprojective geometric distortion may also be a function in the form:

$\begin{bmatrix}x^{\prime} \\y^{\prime} \\z^{\prime} \\w^{\prime}\end{bmatrix} = {\begin{bmatrix}A & B & C & D \\E & F & G & H \\I & J & K & L \\M & N & O & P\end{bmatrix} \cdot \begin{bmatrix}x \\y \\z \\w\end{bmatrix}}$

In one embodiment, a projective geometric distortion is applied to a wcoordinate in homogenous coordinate space for each vertex to reduce asize of at least a portion of the primitive in screen-space. In oneembodiment, a projective geometric distortion based on a distance to thevertex from the viewer and a position of the vertex relative to a centerof a display surface is applied to the vertex coordinates for eachvertex. In one embodiment, the projective geometric distortioncorresponds to an inverse of the optics of a VR display screen. In oneembodiment, the display screen is a head mounted display (HMD) and theprojective geometric distortion that is applied at step 120 is intendedto approximate the lens distortion of a display screen of the HMD.

At step 130, the modified vertex coordinates are transformed intoscreen-space to produce screen-space vertex coordinates. In the contextof the following description, transforming the vertices from homogeneouscoordinate space to screen-space corresponds to transforming thevertices according to a view definition. In one embodiment, the viewdefinition specifies at least a portion of a display screen and thetransforming comprises dividing the modified vertex coordinates by themodified w coordinate to produce a transformed 3D primitive (i.e.,performing a perspective divide). The transformed 3D primitive is thenscaled to match a resolution of the display screen.

At step 140, the transformed 3D primitive is rasterized in screen-spaceusing the screen-space vertex coordinates. In the context of thefollowing description, rasterization determines per-pixel samples thatare covered by the primitive in screen-space. The covered samples maythen be shaded to produce an image for display.

More illustrative information will now be set forth regarding variousoptional architectures and features with which the foregoing frameworkmay or may not be implemented, per the desires of the user. It should bestrongly noted that the following information is set forth forillustrative purposes and should not be construed as limiting in anymanner. Any of the following features may be optionally incorporatedwith or without the exclusion of other features described.

Modification or manipulation of the vertex coordinates when theprojective geometric distortion is applied should be invertible, so thatthe same or approximately the same image (modulo sampling differences)is produced as when a uniformly sampled rendering is performed followedby resampling. For example, lines should appear as lines, points with acommon angle to the eye should retain their relative distance from theeye after transformation, etc. Performing a projective geometricdistortion of the w coordinate for each vertex using a linear transformensures that relative distances from the viewer are maintained for eachvertex. Furthermore, performing a projective geometric distortion of thew coordinate also enables existing vertex shaders, a rasterizer, andpixel shaders to be used to produce the warped or distorted images withthe addition of fixed operation circuitry to apply a projectivegeometric distortion to modify the w coordinate. In one embodiment, adriver program is configured to insert instructions into a shaderprogram that is executed by a programmable shader execution unit toapply projective geometric distortion to modify the w coordinate.

To achieve the desired property of variable pixel sampling resolutionthat is highest in the center of the display screen and falls off in theperiphery (in any direction), the display screen may be split into fourseparate regions. In one embodiment, each region is associated with adifferent view in homogeneous coordinate space. In one embodiment, adifferent projective geometric distortion may be applied to modifyvertex coordinates differently for each one of the regions so that thesampling rate may vary within each region. The projective geometricdistortion may be fixed or may be specified by a shader program. Vertexcoordinates generated by a vertex shader may have projective geometricdistortions applied according to one or more views to produce themodified vertices.

FIG. 2A illustrates a display screen 220 of a head mounted display(HMD), in accordance with one embodiment. Each eye views a displayscreen that is 1080×1200 pixels. Two functions are illustrated in FIG.2A. The first function is a grid 221 that illustrates the distancebetween pixels on the display screen. The grid 221 in FIG. 2A is uniform(each cell is 120 pixels square), as one would expect (the displayscreen pixels are uniform in size). A second function, a series ofradial symmetric circles (shown as dashed lines), representsconstant-valued sample points of a lens distortion function that will bedescribed below. Coordinate system axes 222 are centered on the lens andthe lens distortion function.

FIG. 2B illustrates a lens distortion function 205 shown in FIG. 2A, inaccordance with one embodiment. The lens distortion function 205 is aproperty of the optical lenses used in VR display systems, which distortthe image projected from a display before it is seen by the eye. Thedistortion effect caused by the lens is the inverse of the distortioncaused by a “fisheye lens” in photography. The lens distortion functiondescribes the transformation, by varying sampling distance, that shouldbe applied to rendered images to reverse the lens distortion so that theviewer sees a non-distorted image. In one embodiment, the transformationis an approximation of a reverse lens distortion function that isapplied to reverse the lens distortion of a particular lens.

In FIG. 2B, the sampling distance at the center point of the lens is thebaseline sampling distance, so the ratio of required sampling distancevs center point sampling distance is 1.0 at this point. As the distancefrom the center of the lens increases (shown as the horizontal axis),the sampling distance between each pixel of the final display screenalso increases non-linearly (shown as the vertical axis). If an image isfirst rendered to a render target that uses a constant sampling distance(matching the sampling rate required for the center of the lens), andthen remapped afterwards to display frame buffer pixels, then at theedges of the lens, there will be an excess of frame buffer pixelsrelative to the number of samples needed for the display. Multiplepixels of the render target will be averaged together to produce eachpixel of the display screen. Efficiency may be improved by reducing thenumber of pixels of the render target that are used to produce eachpixel of the display screen to approximately one.

FIG. 2C illustrates the lens distortion function 205 (ratio of samplingdistance compared with sampling distance at the lens center) of FIG. 2Bas a lens distortion function 206 of two dimensional display positionrather than as a function of radial distance from the lens center, inaccordance with one embodiment. In the corners of the display screen220, the sampling distance is large (i.e., greater than 5).

FIG. 2D illustrates sampling grid shown in FIG. 2A transformed via thelens distortion function 205 shown in FIG. 2B. In this figure, theintersections in the grid still represent required sample positions inthe final display framebuffer, but now the grid looks warped, samplingpositions in the periphery are spaced further apart as a result of thelens distortion function. The render target boundary 210 represents aframebuffer that is covering a subset of the display framebuffer. In oneembodiment, the render target pixel resolution is selected so that thesampling distance at the pixel center matches the sampling distancerequired by the display, and the render target resolution is 1360×1660pixels (larger than the resolution of the HMD display screen). Note thatthe corners of the display screen 220 are not covered by the rendertarget 210; the render target 210 would have to be made even larger tocover the pixels in the corners of the display screen 220. Note alsobecause the size of the warped overlay grid increases towards thecorners of the render target 210, the render target 210 is generatingmore pixels than are needed to match the sampling rate required by thefinal display screen 220 in these regions. As shown in FIG. 2C, in thisembodiment, the lens center 225 of the HMD display screen 220 happens tobe positioned off-center relative to the render target 210.

FIG. 2E is the same as FIG. 2A, with the render target boundary 210 fromFIG. 2D added to the illustration. As noted above, the rendered pixelsdo not cover the entire HMD display screen 220.

Given a goal to determine a horizontal and vertical resolution for arender target 210 that at least fully covers the display pixels that areeither horizontally or vertically aligned to the lens center, theresolution of the render target 210 may be determined by computing, atthe lens center 225, the first derivative of the lens distortionfunction 205 in the X and Y directions. The first derivative is roughlythe size of a displayed pixel in screen-space, so the reciprocal of thefirst derivative corresponds to the resolution of the render target 210that is needed to ensure at least one pixel of the render target 210contributes to each pixel of the display screen 220. When an image isrendered using a sampling rate based on the first derivative of the lensdistortion function 205, the ratio of rendered pixels to displayedpixels is 1.74:1, and is therefore inefficient.

By algorithmically modifying the vertex coordinates of renderedgeometry, it is possible to render a view with a sampling rate/spacingthat is variable. In one embodiment, the w coordinate is modified toeffectively “shrink” the primitive by an increasing (variable) amount asthe distance from the lens center 225 increases. Using a fixed samplingdistance across the shrunk primitive is equivalent to using a variablesampling distance across the original primitive, so the technique ofmodifying the w coordinate achieves the desired effect. By increasingthe w coordinate as a linear function of the x coordinate and the ycoordinate the number of rendered pixels for each display screen pixelmay be reduced as the distance from the lens center 225 increases. Inthis embodiment, a modified w coordinate, w′ is computed as a linearfunction w′=w+Ax+By, where w is the w coordinate computed for a vertexduring vertex shading or after vertex shading and before the perspectivedivide and viewport transform is applied. The linear function may berepresented by a linear transform:

$\begin{bmatrix}x \\y \\z \\w^{\prime}\end{bmatrix} = {\begin{bmatrix}1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\A & B & 0 & 1\end{bmatrix} \cdot \begin{bmatrix}x \\y \\z \\w\end{bmatrix}}$

Varying the values of the A and B projective distortion factors changesthe distortion function. If the A and B projective distortion factorsare zero then the w coordinate is unchanged. For a given AB projectivedistortion factor pair, the required resolution of the render target maybe computed. The render target resolution determines how many pixelsneed to be shaded to produce an image for display by the display system.Because the A and B projective distortion factors may be fixed valuesfor a given lens system the values of the A and B projective distortionfactors that minimize the number of pixels that are rendered, and morespecifically, shaded. In one embodiment, the determinant of the firstderivative pair is computed as an approximation of the area of a displayscreen pixel mapped into the render target. For each AB projectivedistortion factor pair, a search is performed to identify the displayscreen pixel having the smallest area. The identified pixel is used tocompute the resolution of the render target. In one embodiment, a searchthrough a range of AB projective distortion factor values is performedto identify the AB projective distortion factor pair that minimizes thenumber of shaded pixels, as described in more detail in conjunction withFIG. 7E.

Modification of the w coordinate using a linear transform ensures thatthe portion of the graphics processing pipeline following vertex shading(e.g. clipping, perspective divide, viewport transform, raster,z-buffer, etc.), will function properly. Importantly, an applicationthat is not designed for display by an HMD may be executed without anymodification to the application to produce images for display by theHMD. In one embodiment, a software driver may be configured to enablemodification of the w coordinates when the application is executed toefficiently produce images for display by the HMD. In one embodiment,one or more coordinates other than the w coordinate are modified using alinear transform to vary the sampling rate used to render the images fordisplay by the HMD.

FIG. 3 illustrates a graphics processing pipeline 300, in accordancewith one embodiment. As an option, the graphics processing pipeline 300may be implemented in the context of the functionality and architectureof the previous Figures and/or any subsequent Figure(s). Of course,however, the graphics processing pipeline 300 may be implemented in anydesired environment. It should also be noted that the aforementioneddefinitions may apply during the present description.

As shown, the graphics processing pipeline 300 may include at least onevertex shader stage 302. The graphics processing pipeline 300 may alsooptionally include one or more of a tessellation initialization shaderstage 304, a tessellation shader stage 306, a geometry shader stage 308,and a pixel shader stage 314. In one embodiment, the vertex shader stage302, the tessellation initialization shader stage 304, the tessellationshader stage 306, the geometry shader stage 308, the pixel shader stage314, and/or hardware/software associated therewith, may represent stagesof the graphics processing pipeline 300 (e.g. a “homogeneous coordinatespace shader pipeline,” or “shader pipeline,” etc.).

Furthermore, in one embodiment, the graphics processing pipeline 300 mayinclude a projection unit 310, a raster unit 312, and a rasteroperations (ROP) unit 316. Additionally, in one embodiment, the rasteroperations unit 316 may perform various operations on the shaded pixeldata such as performing alpha tests, Z-test, stencil tests, and blendingthe shaded pixel data with other pixel data corresponding to otherfragments associated with the pixel. When the raster operations unit 316has finished processing the shaded pixel data, the shaded pixel data maybe written to a display surface (i.e., render target such as a framebuffer, a color buffer, Z-buffer, or the like). The raster operationsunit 316 may perform per-sample z-testing so that visible pixel data iswritten to the frame buffer and obscured pixel data is not written tothe frame buffer.

In one embodiment, the shader stages (e.g., vertex shader stage 302,tessellation initialization shader stage 304, tessellation shader stage306, geometry shader stage 308, and pixel shader stage 314) of thegraphics processing pipeline 300 may be implemented by one or moreprogrammable shader execution units. In one embodiment, the vertexshader stage 302, the tessellation initialization shader stage 304, thetessellation shader stage 306, the geometry shader stage 308, the pixelshader stage 314, and/or hardware/software associated therewith, maysequentially perform processing operations on data representing 3Dgraphics primitives (i.e., primitive data). Once the sequentialprocessing operations performed by the shader stages within the graphicsprocessing pipeline 300 upstream of the projection unit 310 arecomplete, in one embodiment, the projection unit 310 may utilize thedata. In one embodiment, primitive data processed by one or more of theshader stages within the graphics processing pipeline 300 may be writtento a cache (e.g. L1 cache, a vertex cache, etc.). In this case, in oneembodiment, the projection unit 310 may access the data in the cache. Inthe context of the present description, the projection unit 310 refersto any graphics processor related unit or units capable of transforminga three dimensional position of a vertex in virtual space to atwo-dimensional coordinate (e.g. capable of being utilized for display,etc.). In one embodiment, the projection unit 310 and the raster unit312 are implemented as fixed operation circuitry.

In the context of the present description, a vertex shader stage refersto a program that manipulates individual vertex attributes such asposition, color, and texture coordinates, or to any graphics processorrelated circuitry capable of manipulating individual vertex attributessuch as position, color, and texture coordinates. Further, in thecontext of the present description, a tessellation shader refers to anyunit or code associated with a graphics processor capable of beingutilized to perform tessellation. Additionally, a geometry shader mayrefer to any unit or code that is capable of governing the processing ofprimitives (such as triangles). A pixel shader may refer to any unit orcode that is capable of governing the processing of pixels.

The pixel shader 314 may generate shaded pixel data (i.e., shadedattributes such as color values) for a pixel such as by performinglighting operations or sampling texture maps using interpolated texturecoordinates for the pixel. The shaded pixel data may be per-sampleshaded attributes where one or more samples within a pixel share thesame computed shaded attribute value or where a shaded attribute valueis computed for each sample location within a pixel. The pixel shader314 generates per-sample shaded pixel data that is transmitted to theraster operations unit 316.

In one embodiment, the projection unit 310 is configured to receivevertex coordinates from the vertex shader stage and process the vertexcoordinates for at least one view. In the context of the presentdescription, a projection unit 310 refers to any unit or group of unitscapable of performing clipping, culling, perspective correction, andviewport scaling operations on primitive data. Furthermore, projectionunit 310 may be configured to apply a projective geometric distortion ormodify the w coordinates for each vertex in homogeneous coordinate spacebefore performing one or more of clipping culling, perspectivecorrection, and viewport scaling operations. In one embodiment, theprojection unit 310 may be configured to apply a projective geometricdistortion to the w coordinates specifically for each view when multipleviews are specified. In one embodiment, the projection unit 310 isconfigured to perform the steps 110, 120, and 130, shown in FIG. 1. Inanother embodiment, two or more projection states are defined, whereeach projection state may include at least one of a view definition anda projective geometric distortion to be applied to the w coordinates ofone or more 3D primitives.

FIG. 4A illustrates a scene 400 rendered without applying a projectivegeometric distortion to the primitives that represent the scene 400, inaccordance with one embodiment. FIG. 4B shows an illustration of thescene 400 rendered after a projective geometric distortion is applied tothe entire view to produce image 410, in accordance with anotherembodiment. The projective geometric distortion that is applied to eachw coordinate “shrinks” objects in the lower right corner 405 whileobjects in the upper left corner 410 are enlarged.

FIG. 4C illustrates the scene 400 rendered with the display screendivided into four different regions 415, 420, 425, and 430 that eachcorrespond to a different region-specific projective geometricdistortion, in accordance with one embodiment. The display screen may bedivided into quadrants (i.e., the four regions 415, 420, 425, and 430)at the lens center 225 and a pair of projective distortion factors (Aand B) may be computed for each of the four regions 415, 420, 425, and430. In each quadrant, samples of geometry located at the corner thattouches the lens center may be preserved in their original proportions,or may be expanded, while at the opposing corner, the geometry ismaximally shrunk from its original proportions. Each quadrant may be setup with a scissor operation to enable rendering in only the particularquadrant for each view. Vertices of primitives that do not intersect thequadrant may be discarded, so that only primitives within the quadrantare rendered by applying a projective geometric distortion to the wcoordinates. In one embodiment, the projective distortion factors A andB are computed based on an approximate area of a display screen pixel ina render target.

FIG. 5A illustrates a view of a display screen including four differentregions, in accordance with one embodiment. Because the lens isoff-center and there is a wider vertical field of view the projectivedistortion factors are computed to produce four different positive andnegative X and Y coordinate pairs. The four pairs of projectivedistortion factors are optimized for each respective quadrant.Importantly, the projective distortion factors are consistent along theshared boundaries between the quadrants.

The minimum value of the first derivative of the lens distortionfunction may be computed to determine the number of pixels to berendered or sampling rate for a given projective distortion factor. Byvarying the projective distortion factor the number of required pixelsmay be reduced compared with using conventional techniques. Theprojective distortion factors along the boundaries of the quadrants areconsidered to determine an optimal projective geometric distortionfunction along each of the quadrant boundaries.

In this embodiment, the resolution of the render target is 1158×1330pixels. The pixel resolution for a first quadrant 505 is 641×745 and theprojective distortion factors A and B are −0.0405 and +0.6,respectively. The pixel resolution for a second quadrant 510 is 517×745and the projective distortion factors A and B are +0.3 and +0.6,respectively. The pixel resolution for a third quadrant 515 is 641×585and the projective distortion factors A and B are −0.0405 and −0.425,respectively. The pixel resolution for a fourth quadrant 520 is 517×585and the projective distortion factors A and B are +0.3 and +0.425,respectively.

Plotting the first derivative of the projective geometric distortionfunction along the quadrant boundaries illustrates that a display screenpixel width or pixel height is never smaller than a rendered pixel alonga quadrant boundary. FIGS. 5B, 5C, 5D, and 5E illustrate the pixeldimensions along the quadrant boundaries, in accordance with oneembodiment.

As shown in FIGS. 5B, 5C, 5D, and 5E, the sampling rate is sufficientalong the quadrant boundaries. However, the sampling rate at or near thecenter of each quadrant is not necessarily sufficient. The determinantof the first derivatives may be plotted as a measure of pixel area todetermine if the sampling rate is sufficient at or near the center ofeach quadrant.

FIG. 6A illustrates pixel size in four regions with based on wcoordinates to which a projective geometric distortion has been applied,in accordance with another embodiment. The pixel size within each of thefour regions shown in FIG. 6A has a floor value set at 1.0. Pixels thatare above the “floor” 605 in each quadrant are rendered at a higherresolution than is necessary to produce each display screen pixel.Pixels that are below the floor 605 in each quadrant are rendered at alower resolution than is necessary to produce each display screen pixel.

To compute projective distortion factors and sampling rates thatminimize the number of pixels rendered while guaranteeing that there isat least one rendered pixel for every display screen pixel, the minimumdeterminant within each quadrant is determined. Because the renderedpixels should be roughly square, the square-root of the minimumdeterminant is used to determine the required render target pixelresolution. Finally, the larger of the computed dimensions of the rendertarget is chosen for each of the axes dividing a pair of quadrants.

FIG. 6B shows an illustration of pixel size in four regions with wcoordinates to which a projective geometric distortion is applied basedon a minimum determinant in each region, in accordance with anotherembodiment. Note that all of the rendered pixels in each of thequadrants are above the floor 605. In one embodiment, each of thedifferent regions may correspond to a respective view.

FIG. 6C illustrates the graph shown in FIG. 6B superimposed with thelens distortion function 206 shown in FIG. 2C, in accordance withanother embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6C, an additional optimization toreduce the number of shading operations may be performed by defining afifth projective geometric distortion function that is used to render aregion in the center of the display screen. In one embodiment, thegraphics pipeline is configured to render five different images based onfive different views that each correspond to a different region of thedisplay screen, as shown FIG. 6E. In one embodiment, four views arerendered applying projective geometric distortions to the w coordinatesand one central view is rendered without using a projective geometricdistortion. In other words, the fifth projective geometric distortionfunction is an identity transformation that does not modify the wcoordinates associated with the vertices of the primitives.

FIG. 6D illustrates a top view of FIG. 6C. Five regions are shown wherethe W coordinates are transformed in four of the regions to modify thepixel size, in accordance with another embodiment. Each quadrantcorresponds to a different render target. Each quadrant is intersectedby the lens distortion function 206 to form a diamond-shaped region 216where the four quadrants meet. In one embodiment, an identitytransformation may by applied when rendering a view corresponding to thediamond-shaped region 216.

The pixel shading savings may be determined by first computing theresolution of the four render targets corresponding to the four views.The perimeter of the four regions forms an octagon that includes about1392400 rendered pixels compared with 1296000 pixels of the HMD displayscreen, so that 7.4% more pixels are shaded than is necessary. Thesavings resulting from rendering the diamond-shaped region 216 at lowerresolution is computed as the area of the render target, reduced by theratio of the pixel sizes between transformed w coordinates and wcoordinates that are not transformed. For the example shown in FIG. 6D,the ratio is (1360*1660)/(19062)=62%. Computing the area of eachtriangle forming the diamond-shaped region 216 and subtracting thescaled (38%) area from the total resolution indicates that onlyapproximately 4% more pixels are shaded than is necessary.

FIG. 6E illustrates the five regions of the display screen 620, inaccordance with another embodiment. A first region 625 is defined as theupper left quadrant of the display screen 620. A second region 630 isdefined as the upper right quadrant of the display screen 620. A thirdregion 635 is defined as the lower left quadrant of the display screen620. A fourth region 640 is defined as the lower right quadrant of thedisplay screen 620. A fifth region 645 is a central diamond-shapedregion (e.g., diamond-shaped region 216) defined in a center portion ofthe display screen 620. Along the four boundaries between the fifthregion 645 and each of the first, second, third, and fourth regions 625,630, 635, and 640, the view-specific distortion factors are equal, i.e.,A=B. Therefore, on the four boundaries, Ax+By is constant and w′=w+D,where D=a constant value Ax+By.

A scissor operation may be used after rasterization to discardprimitives that are not inside of a bounding box 656 that encloses thefifth region 645. In one embodiment, a stencil operation may be appliedbefore shading to carve out the fifth region 645 from the other fourviews. In another embodiment, a shading operation may be used afterrasterization to carve out the fifth region 645.

In one embodiment, the view-specific distortion factors are specifiedthat shuffle the components of vertices. For example, the view-specificdistortion factors may correspond to a projective geometric distortionof a 90 degree rotation or mirroring operation. The following projectivegeometric distortion swaps the x and y component and x is negated andstored in y′:

$\begin{bmatrix}x^{\prime} \\y^{\prime} \\z^{\prime} \\w^{\prime}\end{bmatrix} = {\begin{bmatrix}0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\{- 1} & 0 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 0 & 1\end{bmatrix} \cdot \begin{bmatrix}x \\y \\z \\w\end{bmatrix}}$A projective geometric distortion that approximates a lens distortionfunction may be represented as:

$\begin{bmatrix}x^{\prime} \\y^{\prime} \\z^{\prime} \\w^{\prime}\end{bmatrix} = {\begin{bmatrix}0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\A & B & 0 & 1\end{bmatrix} \cdot \begin{bmatrix}x \\y \\z \\w\end{bmatrix}}$

FIG. 7A illustrates a block diagram of a vertex coordinate modificationunit 700 that is configured to perform a transformation of coordinatesto render primitives using a variable sampling rate, in accordance withone embodiment. In one embodiment, the vertex coordinate modificationunit 700 may be included in circuitry configured to perform theoperations of the projection unit 310 shown in FIG. 3. In anotherembodiment, the vertex coordinate modification unit 700 may be includedas circuitry between the vertex shader 302 and the projection unit 310shown in FIG. 3. In one embodiment, the vertex coordinate modificationunit 700 is fixed operation circuitry that processes shaded vertex datain homogeneous coordinate space.

The vertex coordinate modification unit 700 includes a view look-up unit710 and a projective geometric distortion unit 715. The vertexcoordinate modification unit 700 receives a shaded vertex in homogeneouscoordinate space. The vertex may be defined by one or more of x, y, z,and w coordinates. A view identifier may be included with the vertexcoordinates that identifies at least one view with which the vertexcoordinates are associated. Each primitive is associated with a singleview. A primitive may be broadcast or duplicated to provide separatecopy of the primitive to each view of multiple views so that eachprimitive is associated with only one view. The view may correspond tothe entire display screen or multiple views may be defined that eachcorrespond to a different region of the display screen. The view look-upunit 710 receives the vertex coordinates and outputs, to the projectivegeometric distortion unit 715, the view-specific projective distortionfactors that the primitive specified by the vertex coordinatesintersects. The projective geometric distortion unit 715 transforms thevertex coordinates using the projective distortion factors to computeview-specific modified vertex coordinates. In some cases, the primitivespecified by the vertex coordinates may not actually intersect the view.If so, the primitive will be clipped after being output by the vertexcoordinate modification unit 700 to discard all or a portion of theprimitive.

In one embodiment the projective geometric distortion unit 715 isconfigured to compute a modified w coordinate, w′ as a linear functionw′=w+Ax+By, where A and B are provided by the view look-up unit 710. Inanother embodiment, the projective geometric distortion unit 715 isconfigured to compute a modified w coordinate, w′ is computed as alinear function w′=Ax+By+Cz+Dw, where A, B, C, and D are provided by theview look-up unit 710.

FIG. 7B illustrates a method 720 for modifying vertex coordinates tovary a sampling rate, in accordance with one embodiment. Although method720 is described in the context of the graphics processing pipeline 300,the method 720 may also be performed by a program, software driver,custom circuitry, or by a combination of one or more of customcircuitry, a software driver, and a program. Furthermore, persons ofordinary skill in the art will understand that any system that performsmethod 720 is within the scope and spirit of embodiments of the presentinvention.

At step 705, vertex coordinates for a 3D primitive are received. At step725, the view-specific projective distortion factors for a viewintersected by the 3D primitive are identified and provided to theprojective geometric transform unit 715. In one embodiment, a viewidentifier corresponding to the view is received with the vertexcoordinates. At step 730, a projective geometric distortion is performedon the vertex coordinates using the view-specific projective distortionfactors to produce modified vertex coordinates in homogeneous coordinatespace.

At step 735, the vertex coordinate modification unit 700 determines ifthe primitive defined by the modified vertex coordinates is within theview, and, if not, then at step 740 the vertices defining the primitiveare discarded. In one embodiment, vertex coordinates for the 3Dprimitives are broadcast (i.e., multi-cast) to multiple vertexcoordinate modification units 700, where each vertex coordinatemodification unit 700 corresponds to a different view. Therefore, atleast steps 705, 725, 730, 735, and 740 may be performed in parallel fortwo or more view. Importantly, vertices may be shaded once and then oneor more projective geometric distortions may be applied to the shadedvertices to generate modified vertices associated with each of the oneor more projective geometric distortions. The vertex coordinates for the3D primitives are stored once and multiple versions of modified vertexcoordinates for a set of one or more of the 3D primitives may begenerated by one or more vertex coordinate modification units 700.

In one embodiment, one or more of steps 725, 730, 735, and 740 areperformed during execution of instructions within a shader program. Inone embodiment, a driver program is configured to insert instructionsinto a geometry shader to perform one or more of steps 725, 730, 735,and 740. Multiple versions of modified vertex coordinates for a set ofone or more of the 3D primitives may be generated by the geometryshader.

At step 745, the modified vertex coordinates are transformed fromhomogeneous coordinate space into screen-space to produce screen-spacevertex coordinates. At step 750, and the 3D primitive is rasterized inscreen-space using the screen-space vertex coordinates.

FIG. 7C illustrates a portion of a graphics processing pipeline 721including the vertex coordinate modification unit 700, in accordancewith one embodiment. The portion of the graphics processing pipeline 721includes a clip unit 701, the vertex coordinate modification unit 700, aperspective divide unit 702, a viewport transform unit 703, and ascissor unit 704. In one embodiment, the portion of the graphicsprocessing pipeline 721 is included within the projection unit 310 shownin FIG. 3. The portion of the graphics processing pipeline 721 may beconfigured to perform steps 705, 725, 730, 735, 740, and 745 of themethod 720.

In one embodiment, the clip unit 701 is configured to discard anyportion of a primitive specified by the modified vertex coordinates thatare outside of a view. In one embodiment, the perspective divide unit702 divides the vertex coordinates by the modified w coordinate, w′ toproduce perspective corrected vertex coordinates. In contrast, aconventional perspective divide operation divides the vertex coordinatesby the unmodified w coordinate. In one embodiment, the viewporttransform unit 703 is configured to perform a scaling and offsetoperation on the perspective corrected vertex coordinates to convert thehomogeneous coordinate space perspective corrected vertex coordinates toscreen space perspective corrected vertex coordinates. In oneembodiment, the scissor unit 704 is configured to perform scissoroperations on the screen space perspective corrected vertex coordinatesbefore the primitives are rasterized.

FIG. 7D illustrates a portion of a graphics processing pipeline 722including the vertex coordinate modification unit 700, in accordancewith another embodiment. The portion of the graphics processing pipeline722 also includes the clip unit 701, the vertex coordinate modificationunit 700, the perspective divide unit 702, the viewport transform unit703, and the scissor unit 704. In one embodiment, the portion of thegraphics processing pipeline 722 is included within the projection unit310 shown in FIG. 3. The portion of the graphics processing pipeline 722may be configured to perform steps 705, 725, 730, 735, 740, and 745 ofthe method 720. However, compared with the portion of the graphicsprocessing pipeline 721, in the portion of the graphics processingpipeline 722, the clipping is completed before the vertex coordinatesare modified by the vertex coordinate modification unit 700.

FIG. 7E illustrates a method 760 for determining a variable samplingrate, in accordance with one embodiment for VR display applications. Thevariable sampling rate that is determined provides at least one rendertarget pixel for each final HMD display screen pixel. Although method760 is described in the context of the graphics processing pipeline 300,the method 760 may also be performed by a program, software driver,custom circuitry, or by a combination of one or more of customcircuitry, a software driver, and a program. Furthermore, persons ofordinary skill in the art will understand that any system that performsmethod 760 is within the scope and spirit of embodiments of the presentinvention.

At step 755, a lens distortion function for a display screen isreceived. In one embodiment, the lens distortion function approximates areverse lens distortion function that is applied to reverse the opticaldistortion for a particular lens. At step 765, one or more views aredefined that each corresponds to a region of the display screen, whereeach region is associated with a different portion of the distortionfunction. At step 770, view-specific projective distortion factors areinitialized for each view. In one embodiment, the view-specificprojective distortion factors are initialized with values intended toproduce a minimum pixel size for each view of one pixel. In oneembodiment, the view-specific projective distortion factors areinitialized with values intended to minimize the number of pixelsrendered for each view.

At step 775, a minimum determinant is computed for each of the one ormore views based on the respective view-specific projective distortionfactors. In one embodiment, the minimum determinant equals a minimumarea of a pixel. At step 780, a minimum pixel size for each of the oneor more views is computed based on the respective minimum determinant.In one embodiment, the minimum pixel size is the reciprocal or thesquare-root of the minimum determinant computed at step 775 for a view.In addition to controlling the minimum pixel size for a view, theprojective distortion factors also control the number of pixels that arerendered for the view. Therefore, the projective distortion factorscontrol the pixel resolution of the render target. For a particularview, a search is performed to find the projective distortion factorsthat minimize the number of pixels rendered while also maintaining aminimum pixel size, so that a desired image quality is achieved. Arender target corresponding to each view has a width and height inpixels that is defined based on the particular display system.

At step 782, a number of pixels to be rendered for each view is computedbased on the minimum pixel size and the render target dimensions. Atstep 785, the number of pixels to be rendered for each view is comparedwith any previously computed number of pixels for the respective view.When a minimum number of pixels to be rendered is reached for each ofthe views, the search is done at step 795. Otherwise, another iterationof steps 775, 780, 782, and 785 is performed after the view-specificprojective distortion factors for at least one view are updated todifferent values.

The projective distortion factors for each of the one or more viewscorrespond to a view-specific sampling rate (i.e., pixels rendered/view)and may be stored in the view look-up unit 710. In practice, applyingthe projective geometric distortion to the 3D geometry being rendereddistorts the geometry to better match the optical qualities of aparticular display system.

FIG. 8 illustrates a parallel processing unit (PPU) 800, in accordancewith one embodiment. As an option, the PPU 800 may be implemented in thecontext of the functionality and architecture of the previous Figuresand/or any subsequent Figure(s). Of course, however, the PPU 800 may beimplemented in any desired environment. It should also be noted that theaforementioned definitions may apply during the present description.

While a parallel processor is provided herein as an example of the PPU800, it should be strongly noted that such processor is set forth forillustrative purposes only, and any processor may be employed tosupplement and/or substitute for the same. In one embodiment, the PPU800 is configured to execute a plurality of threads concurrently in twoor more programmable shader execution units (SEUs) 850. A thread (i.e. athread of execution) is an instantiation of a set of instructionsexecuting within a particular SEU 850. Each SEU 850, described below inmore detail in conjunction with FIG. 9, may include, but is not limitedto, one or more processing cores, one or more load/store units (LSUs), alevel-one (L1) cache, shared memory, and the like. Each SEU 850 mayoperate as a shader stage with a combination of programmable and/orfixed operation circuitry.

In one embodiment, the PPU 800 includes an input/output (I/O) unit 805configured to transmit and receive communications (i.e., commands, data,etc.) from a central processing unit (CPU) (not shown) over the systembus 802. The I/O unit 805 may implement a Peripheral ComponentInterconnect Express (PCIe) interface for communications over a PCIebus. In alternative embodiments, the I/O unit 805 may implement othertypes of well-known bus interfaces.

The PPU 800 also includes a host interface unit 810 that decodes thecommands and transmits the commands to the grid management unit 815 orother units of the PPU 800 (e.g. a memory interface 880, etc.) as thecommands may specify. The host interface unit 810 is configured to routecommunications between and among the various logical units of the PPU800.

In one embodiment, a program encoded as a command stream is written to abuffer by the CPU. The buffer is a region in memory, e.g., memory 804 orsystem memory, that is accessible (i.e., read/write) by both the CPU andthe PPU 800. The CPU writes the command stream to the buffer and thentransmits a pointer to the start of the command stream to the PPU 800.

In one embodiment, the PPU 800 comprises X SEUs 850(X). For example, thePPU 800 may include 16 distinct SEUs 850. Each SEU 850 is multi-threadedand configured to execute a plurality of threads (e.g., 32 threads) froma particular thread block concurrently. Each of the SEUs 850 isconnected to a level-two (L2) cache 865 via a crossbar 860 (or othertype of interconnect network). The L2 cache 865 is connected to one ormore memory interfaces 880. Memory interfaces 880 implement 16, 32, 64,128-bit data buses, or the like, for high-speed data transfer. In oneembodiment, the PPU 800 comprises U memory interfaces 880(U), where eachmemory interface 880(U) is connected to a corresponding memory device804(U). For example, PPU 800 may be connected to up to 6 memory devices804, such as graphics double-data-rate, version 5, synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (GDDR5 SDRAM).

In one embodiment, the PPU 800 implements a multi-level memoryhierarchy. The memory 804 is located off-chip in SDRAM coupled to thePPU 800. Data from the memory 804 may be fetched and stored in the L2cache 865, which is located on-chip and is shared between the variousSEUs 850. In one embodiment, each of the SEUs 850 also implements an L1cache. The L1 cache is private memory that is dedicated to a particularSEU 850. Each of the L1 caches is coupled to the shared L2 cache 865.Data from the L2 cache 865 may be fetched and stored in each of the L1caches for processing in the functional units of the SEUs 850.

In one embodiment, the PPU 800 comprises a graphics processing unit(GPU). The PPU 800 is configured to receive commands that specify shaderprograms for processing graphics data. Graphics data may be defined as aset of primitives such as points, lines, triangles, quads, trianglestrips, and the like. Typically, a primitive includes data thatspecifies a number of vertices for the primitive (e.g. in a model-spacecoordinate system, etc.) as well as attributes associated with eachvertex of the primitive. The PPU 800 can be configured to process thegraphics primitives to generate a frame buffer (i.e., pixel data foreach of the pixels of the display). The driver kernel implements agraphics processing pipeline, such as the graphics processing pipelinedefined by the OpenGL API.

An application writes model data for a scene (i.e., a collection ofvertices and attributes) to memory. The model data defines each of theobjects that may be visible on a display. The application then makes anAPI call to the driver kernel that requests the model data to berendered and displayed. The driver kernel reads the model data andwrites commands to the buffer to perform one or more operations toprocess the model data. The commands may encode different shaderprograms including one or more of a vertex shader, hull shader, geometryshader, pixel shader, etc. For example, the GMU 815 may configure one ormore SEUs 850 to execute a vertex shader program that processes a numberof vertices defined by the model data. In one embodiment, the GMU 815may configure different SEUs 850 to execute different shader programsconcurrently. For example, a first subset of SEUs 850 may be configuredto execute a geometry shader program while a second subset of SEUs 850may be configured to execute a pixel shader program. The first subset ofSEUs 850 processes vertex data to produce processed vertex data andwrites the processed vertex data to the L2 cache 865 and/or the memory804. In one embodiment, instructions may be included in the geometryshader program to apply a projective geometric distortion to one or morevertex coordinates and generate modified vertex coordinates. In oneembodiment one or more SEUs 850 may include one or more vertexcoordinate modification units 700 that are each configured to perform anarithmetic operation on one or more vertex coordinates and generatemodified vertex coordinates. In one embodiment, one or more vertexcoordinate modification units 700 are each configured to apply aprojective geometric distortion to one or more vertex coordinates andgenerate modified vertex coordinates.

After the processed vertex data is rasterized (i.e., transformed fromthree-dimensional data into two-dimensional data in screen space) toproduce fragment data, the second subset of SEUs 850 executes a pixelshader to produce processed fragment data, which is then blended withother processed fragment data and written to the frame buffer in memory804. The geometry shader program and pixel shader program may executeconcurrently, processing different data from the same scene in apipelined fashion until all of the model data for the scene has beenrendered to the frame buffer. Then, the contents of the frame buffer aretransmitted to a display controller for display on a display device.

The PPU 800 may be included in a desktop computer, a laptop computer, atablet computer, a smart-phone (e.g., a wireless, hand-held device),personal digital assistant (PDA), a digital camera, a hand-heldelectronic device, and the like. In one embodiment, the PPU 800 isembodied on a single semiconductor substrate. In another embodiment, thePPU 800 is included in a system-on-a-chip (SoC) along with one or moreother logic units such as a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) CPU,a memory management unit (MMU), a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), andthe like.

In one embodiment, the PPU 800 may be included on a graphics card thatincludes one or more memory devices 804 such as GDDR5 SDRAM. Thegraphics card may be configured to interface with a PCIe slot on amotherboard of a desktop computer that includes, e.g., a northbridgechipset and a southbridge chipset. In yet another embodiment, the PPU800 may be an integrated graphics processing unit (iGPU) included in thechipset (i.e., Northbridge) of the motherboard.

FIG. 9 illustrates the SEU 850 of FIG. 8, in accordance with oneembodiment. As shown in FIG. 9, the SEU 850 includes an instructioncache 905, one or more scheduler units 910, a register file 920, one ormore processing cores 950, zero or more double precision units (DPUs)951, one or more special function units (SFUs) 952, one or moreload/store units (LSUs) 953, an interconnect network 980, a sharedmemory/L1 cache 970, and one or more texture units 990.

Each SEU 850 includes a register file 920 that provides a set ofregisters for the functional units of the SEU 850. In one embodiment,the register file 920 is divided between each of the functional unitssuch that each functional unit is allocated a dedicated portion of theregister file 920. In another embodiment, the register file 920 isdivided between the different warps being executed by the SEU 850. Theregister file 920 provides temporary storage for operands connected tothe data paths of the functional units.

Each SEU 850 comprises L processing cores 950. In one embodiment, theSEU 850 includes a large number (e.g., 128, etc.) of distinct processingcores 950. Each core 950 is a fully-pipelined, single-precisionprocessing unit that includes a floating point arithmetic logic unit andan integer arithmetic logic unit. In one embodiment, the floating pointarithmetic logic units implement the IEEE 754-2008 standard for floatingpoint arithmetic. Each SEU 850 also comprises MDPUs 951 that implementdouble-precision floating point arithmetic, N SFUs 952 that performspecial functions (e.g., copy rectangle, pixel blending operations, andthe like), and P LSUs 953 that implement load and store operationsbetween the shared memory/L1 cache 970 and the register file 920. In oneembodiment, the SEU 850 includes 4 DPUs 951, 32 SFUs 952, and 32 LSUs953.

Each SEU 850 includes an interconnect network 980 that connects each ofthe functional units to the register file 920 and the shared memory/L1cache 970. In one embodiment, the interconnect network 980 is a crossbarthat can be configured to connect any of the functional units to any ofthe registers in the register file 920 or the memory locations in sharedmemory/L1 cache 970.

In one embodiment, the SEU 850 is implemented within a GPU. In such anembodiment, the SEU 850 comprises J texture units 990. The texture units990 are configured to load texture maps (i.e., a 2D array of texels)from the memory 804 and sample the texture maps to produce sampledtexture values for use in shader programs. The texture units 990implement texture operations such as anti-aliasing operations usingmip-maps (i.e., texture maps of varying levels of detail). In oneembodiment, the SEU 850 includes 8 texture units 990.

The PPU 800 described above may be configured to perform highly parallelcomputations much faster than conventional CPUs. Parallel computing hasadvantages in graphics processing, data compression, biometrics, streamprocessing algorithms, and the like.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary system 1000 in which the variousarchitecture and/or functionality of the various previous embodimentsmay be implemented. As shown, a system 1000 is provided including atleast one central processor 1001 that is connected to a communicationbus 1002. The communication bus 1002 may be implemented using anysuitable protocol, such as PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect),PCI-Express, AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), HyperTransport, or anyother bus or point-to-point communication protocol(s). The system 1000also includes a main memory 1004. Control logic (software) and data arestored in the main memory 1004 which may take the form of random accessmemory (RAM).

The system 1000 also includes input devices 1012, a graphics processor1006, and a display 1008, i.e. a conventional CRT (cathode ray tube),LCD (liquid crystal display), LED (light emitting diode), plasma displayor the like. In one embodiment, a distortion function is defined for thedisplay 1008. User input may be received from the input devices 1012,e.g., keyboard, mouse, touchpad, microphone, and the like. In oneembodiment, the graphics processor 1006 may include a plurality ofshader execution units, a rasterization unit, etc. Each of the foregoingunits may even be situated on a single semiconductor platform to form agraphics processing unit (GPU).

In the present description, a single semiconductor platform may refer toa sole unitary semiconductor-based integrated circuit or chip. It shouldbe noted that the term single semiconductor platform may also refer tomulti-chip modules with increased connectivity which simulate on-chipoperation, and make substantial improvements over utilizing aconventional central processing unit (CPU) and bus implementation. Ofcourse, the various modules may also be situated separately or invarious combinations of semiconductor platforms per the desires of theuser.

The system 1000 may also include a secondary storage 1010. The secondarystorage 1010 includes, for example, a hard disk drive and/or a removablestorage drive, representing a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive,a compact disk drive, digital versatile disk (DVD) drive, recordingdevice, universal serial bus (USB) flash memory. The removable storagedrive reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit in awell-known manner. Computer programs, or computer control logicalgorithms, may be stored in the main memory 1004 and/or the secondarystorage 1010. Such computer programs, when executed, enable the system1000 to perform various functions. The main memory 1004, the storage1010, and/or any other storage are possible examples ofcomputer-readable media.

In one embodiment, the architecture and/or functionality of the variousprevious figures may be implemented in the context of the centralprocessor 1001, the graphics processor 1006, an integrated circuit (notshown) that is capable of at least a portion of the capabilities of boththe central processor 1001 and the graphics processor 1006, a chipset(i.e., a group of integrated circuits designed to work and sold as aunit for performing related functions, etc.), and/or any otherintegrated circuit for that matter.

Still yet, the architecture and/or functionality of the various previousfigures may be implemented in the context of a general computer system,a circuit board system, a game console system dedicated forentertainment purposes, an application-specific system, and/or any otherdesired system. For example, the system 1000 may take the form of adesktop computer, laptop computer, server, workstation, game consoles,embedded system, and/or any other type of logic. Still yet, the system1000 may take the form of various other devices including, but notlimited to a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a mobile phonedevice, a television, etc.

Further, while not shown, the system 1000 may be coupled to a network(e.g., a telecommunications network, local area network (LAN), wirelessnetwork, wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, peer-to-peernetwork, cable network, or the like) for communication purposes.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodiment shouldnot be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, butshould be defined only in accordance with the following claims and theirequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, from a shaderexecution unit, vertex coordinates for three-dimensional (3D) primitivein homogeneous coordinate space, wherein a first vertex coordinaterepresents a distance from a viewer to the 3D primitive; computing aprojective distortion factor based on a minimum determinant of a firstderivative of a second vertex coordinate in screen-space; performing, bycircuitry, a projective geometric distortion operation on the firstvertex coordinate using the projective distortion factor to produce amodified first coordinate; dividing each one of the vertex coordinatesby the modified first coordinate to produce perspective corrected vertexcoordinates; transforming the perspective corrected vertex coordinatesfrom homogeneous coordinate space into the screen-space to producescreen-space vertex coordinates of a transformed 3D primitive; andrasterizing the transformed 3D primitive in the screen-space using thescreen-space vertex coordinates to produce an image for display.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the projective geometric distortion operationapproximates a reverse distortion that is used to reverse an opticaldistortion of a lens.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the projectivegeometric distortion operation is configured to reduce a pixel samplingrate as a distance from a center of a display screen increases.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the projective geometric distortion operationis configured to reduce a pixel sampling rate as a distance from aviewer increases.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the projectivegeometric distortion corresponds to an upper left quadrant of thedisplay screen and, further comprising, performing a second projectivegeometric distortion that corresponds to an upper right quadrant of thedisplay screen.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein a third projectivegeometric distortion corresponds to a center region of the displayscreen, and further comprising performing the third projective geometricdistortion on the first vertex coordinate defining primitivesintersecting the center region.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein thefirst projective geometric distortion is associated with a first viewand the second projective geometric distortion is associated with asecond view.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing theprojective distortion factor that minimizes a number of shaded pixels.9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after transforming theperspective corrected vertex coordinates and before dividing each one ofthe vertex coordinates by the modified first coordinate, clipping thetransformed 3D primitive.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein theperspective corrected vertex coordinates are transformed according to aview definition.
 11. A system, comprising: a graphics processorcomprising: a shader execution unit configured to output vertexcoordinates for a three-dimensional (3D) primitive in homogeneouscoordinate space, wherein a first vertex coordinate represents adistance from a viewer to the 3D primitive; and a vertex coordinatemodification unit configured to: compute a projective distortion factorbased on a minimum determinant of a first derivative of a second vertexcoordinate in screen-space; and perform a projective geometricdistortion operation on the first vertex coordinate using the projectivedistortion factor to produce a modified first coordinate; a perspectivedivide unit configured to divide each one of the vertex coordinates bythe modified first coordinate to produce perspective corrected vertexcoordinates; a viewport transform unit configured to transform theperspective corrected vertex coordinates into the screen-space toproduce screen-space vertex coordinates of a transformed 3D primitive; araster unit configured to rasterize the transformed 3D primitive in thescreen-space using the screen-space vertex coordinates to produce animage for display; and a display screen configured to display the image.12. The system of claim 11, wherein the projective geometric distortionoperation approximates a reverse distortion that is used to reverse anoptical distortion of a lens.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein theprojective geometric distortion operation is configured to reduce apixel sampling rate as a distance from a center of a display screenincreases.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein the projective geometricdistortion operation is configured to reduce a pixel sampling rate as adistance from a viewer increases.
 15. The system of claim 11, whereinthe projective geometric distortion corresponds to an upper leftquadrant of the display screen and, further comprising, performing asecond projective geometric distortion that corresponds to an upperright quadrant of the display screen.
 16. The system of claim 15,wherein a third projective geometric distortion corresponds to a centerregion of the display screen, and further comprising performing thethird projective geometric distortion on the first vertex coordinatedefining primitives intersecting the center region.
 17. The method ofclaim 15, wherein the first projective geometric distortion isassociated with a first view and the second projective geometricdistortion is associated with a second view.
 18. The method of claim 11,further comprising computing the projective distortion factor thatminimizes a number of shaded pixels.
 19. The system of claim 11, furthercomprising a clip unit that is coupled between the vertex coordinatemodification unit and the perspective divide unit and configured to clipthe transformed 3D primitive.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein theperspective corrected vertex coordinates are transformed according to aview definition.